China should encourage its citizens to join counter-espionage work, including creating channels for individuals to report suspicious activity as well as commending and rewarding them, the state security ministry said on Tuesday.
A system that makes it "normal" for the masses to participate in counter-espionage must be established, wrote the Ministry of State Security, the main agency overlooking foreign intelligence and anti-spying, in its first post on its WeChat account, which went live on Monday.
The call to popularize anti-spying work among the masses follows an expansion of China's counter-espionage law that took effect in July.
The law, which bans the transfer of information related to national security and interests which it does not specify, has alarmed the United States, saying foreign companies in China could be punished for regular business activities.
The revised law allows authorities carrying out an anti-espionage probe to gain access to data, electronic equipment, and information on personal property.
Political security is the top priority of national security, and the "core" of political security is the security of China's political system, Minister of State Security Chen Yixin wrote in an article in a Chinese legal magazine in July.
"The most fundamental is to safeguard the leadership and ruling position of the Communist Party of China and the socialist system with Chinese characteristics," Chen said.
In recent years, China has arrested and detained dozens of Chinese and foreign nationals on suspicion of espionage, including an executive at Japanese drugmaker Astellas Pharma in March.
Australian journalist Cheng Lei, accused by China for providing state secrets to another country, has been detained since September 2020.
China's declaration that it is under threat from spies comes as Western nations, most prominently the United States, accuse China of espionage and cyberattacks, a charge that Beijing has rejected.
The United States itself is the "empire of hacking," a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson has said.
In protecting itself from espionage, China would need the participation of its people in building a defense line, the state security ministry wrote in its WeChat post.
© Thomson Reuters 2023.
12 Comments
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lincolnman
Wow, just wow....
It's clear Xi is bent on establishing an Orwellian state...
I'm not sure the Chinese people will go for that...
Time for another Tiananmen Square...
stormcrow
China has been doing in foreign countries for years what they’re trying to stop in their own country.
AlternativeOpinion
The Chinese youth need to be shown the lies told to them by their elders. When they travel, the truth can’t be hidden, if they are willing to look.
Desert Tortoise
If you know a little bit about the Chinese the whole thing is kind of laughable. The great majority of Chinese want as little to do with the CCP or government agencies as is possible and still live their lives. As my own family likes to say, "the government does what it wants to do and we do what we want to do". They try as much as possible not to draw attention to themselves as, in our experience, any attention by the CCP or the government never leads to anything good.
The young in China especially are disillusioned and disheartened. They are "lying flat", doing the bare minimum to get by. Many say they are not just China's lost generation but instead say they are China's "last generation". Their term. They are not marrying or having kids because they think it is a bad thing to bring a kid up in a nation like China that offers no future. Xi and his yes men are living in a fantasy land of their own construction as detached as it is possible to be from day to day lives of their citizens.
TaiwanIsNotChina
They want to mobilize the entire state in reporting on their neighbors, too.
Rodney
Wish I could Speak Chinese apart from Ni how mar?
Ricky Kaminski13
The natural next step to the surveillance state, make every dirty little opportunist an informant. Someone should tell China Orwell wrote 1984 as a warning not a guide book. Dark times ahead for the Middle Kingdom.
opheliajadefeldt
Oh dear, this is what Hitler did in Germany at the start of the Third Reich. Every one spied on every one else to curry favour with the Gestapo. And it worked. And just think, this was before the times of camera's every where.
cuddly
This is a positive aspect. Citizens should look out for the best interests for their countries.
Madverts
What a miserable regime.
theFu
How long before the lack of reporting someone else isn't folded into the CCP Social Credit system?
Don't most countries have a way to report crimes already? "If you see something, say something" comes to mind.
Of course, in China, anyone with a camera taking photos could be reported for espionage.
Don't forget what happened in the USSR when neighbors were forced to report on neighbors. It cause a fear of everyone. That's good for dictators, bad for regular people.